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Hail, British Columbia!

Date produced: 1941

Filmmaker(s):

Leo J. Heffernan

Description:

"To the production of Hail, British Columbia!, Leo J. Heffernan brought the filming talent and the fertile imagination that have marked his previous pictures. But, in this film, he has surpassed himself. He has produced a travelog, a scenic film or a record of British Columbia that covers all the diverse high lights of that province, but which still has unity. He has made a movie that is technically superior to the best theatrical travelogs, and certainly more entertaining. Mr. Heffernan has two great gifts — the capacity to improvise sequences during his travels and the ability to invent amusing and apparently natural episodes that fit the theme of his picture. This latter gift is a dual one, for it includes the ability to direct actors — people whom Mr. Heffernan meets here and there and persuades to "take a part" in his movie. The continuity of Hail, British Columbia! is ingenious and suavely followed. A girl gets off a Canadian train at a way station, where she finds a "Mountie." To him, she puts the problem, "What should I see in British Columbia?" The Mountie is somewhat taken aback, but he gradually recalls things to tell a tourist, and the picture unfolds his story. Heffernan like, there is a surprise twist at the end, which we shall not spoil by telling. Discussion of Hail, British Columbia! would be incomplete without at least a mention of the magnificent logging sequence, the clever camera work in presenting a story of a bicycle ride, the beautiful scenic shots and Canada's blondes! This picture has everything!" Movie Makers, Dec. 1941, 541.


Happy Day

Date produced: 1934

Filmmaker(s):

T. Lawrenson

Description:

"In the Home Movie field, Lawrenson submitted a fine document of a day with his little 2-year-old daughter. The main portion is given over to a day at the seashore. But he gives reasons for everything he does even to going home. He shows a storm coming up and after the family has arrived safely at home, the little looks out of the window while the raindrops patter on the windowpane." American Cinematographer, Jan. 1936, 24.


Harbor

Date produced: 1935

Filmmaker(s):

James A. Sherlock

Description:

"From Australia James A. Sherlock sent 'Harbor,' a picture in Kodachrome. While the picture was well made, finely edited and cut, it suffered from uneven coloring and density. Undoubtedly much was taken with the earlier Kodachrome which darkened rapidly after it was exposed if it was not rushed to the processing plant." American Cinematographer, Feb. 1937, 73.


Hidden Lakes

Date produced: 1959

Filmmaker(s):

Charles Woodley

Description:

"Film of picturesque scenes of flowing water." Library and Archives Canada.


Hooked

Date produced: 1934

Filmmaker(s):

Walter Mills

Wendell Patton

M. P. Gamber

L. Thorny

Description:

"Hooked, an 8mm. comedy by the Grand Rapids Movie Makers, was intended as a straight drama of the trout streams. It has ended, however, as a delightful farce of a movie club trying desperately to complete such a picture — and is probably the better because of this mid production metamorphosis. For, although the first and original section of the picture is wholly charming and well photographed, it is in the latter section that the film picks up spirit, sparkle and definite dramatic power. It is in this part that the producers have conceived and executed a number of cinematic coups, climaxing them with a stunning multiple exposure sequence probably never before equalled or even approached in this medium. Walter Mills, ACL, L. Thorny, ACL, M. P. Gamber and Wendell Patton, of the Grand Rapids club, continue and enhance, with this film, their rightful reputation as most able advocates of 8mm." Movie Makers, Dec. 1934. 534.


In fondo al mare [At the Bottom of the Sea]

Date produced: 1942

Description:

"documentario"/documentary


In the Beginning [1942]

Date produced: 1942

Filmmaker(s):

Fred C. Ells

Description:

"In the Beginning is a title that appears for the second time in these lists, for this film is a new version of a picture by the same name that was produced in 1935 by Fred C. Ells. The first picture was filmed in black and white when Mr. Ells was working in Japan, and the second picture was made in color in this country. In the Beginning tells, with extraordinary beauty, the story of Creation in the Book of Genesis, and it is climaxed by the creation of man and his works. It is a symphonic film of water, earth and of nature, graced by the cinematic skill and artistry familiar to all who have seen Mr. Ells's work. He has the gift of exquisite motion picture composition and distinctive choice of precise subject matter to which, in this picture, is added a unique control of color. Some of the scenes of birds forming moving patterns on the sand are astonishing, both in composition and in color effect. Back lighting, slow motion and the telephoto lens are tools that Mr. Ells uses frequently, but never for their obvious effect. They are but part of the magic by which he takes his audience back to the days of Creation." Movie Makers, Dec. 1942, 506.


In una goccia d’acqua [In a Drop of Water]

Date produced: 1937

Filmmaker(s):

Mario Alzona

Description:

"doc. didattico"/educational documentary


Interlude in Sunlight

Date produced: 1945

Filmmaker(s):

Martin E. Drayson

Description:

"As an openly avowed disciple of Herman Bartel, one of the old masters of nature filming, Martin E. Drayson has been an ably and imaginative pupil. Seldom have individual scenes of such delicate beauty as his poured across the screen of personal movies. Interlude in Sunlight, like Mr. Bartel's work in Awakening or Pathetique, is essentially an effort to interpret, in cinematic imagery, compositions of music. As such, it is divided into three sections or movements, comprised pictorially of bees, flowing water and flowers. The musical scores which these interpret are Paganini's Moto Perpetuo, Massenet's Meditation from Thais, and Johann Strauss's Wiener Blut waltzes. Preceding these pieces (during the lead title assembly) and between the several sections, Mr. Drayson has elected the use of complete silence." Movie Makers, Dec. 1945, 496.


Lake District Windermere, The

Date produced: 1933

Filmmaker(s):

Harold Preston

Sidney Preston

Description:

"Members of the Preston Family on holiday in the Lake District. The film includes various landscape shots of Lake Windermere and the boating activities that take place around the pier and lakeside. Concludes with footage of farm workers stacking hay on to a horse-drawn cart; farm animals grazing in the fields and a man and woman playing with some puppies in a garden." (NWFA Online Database)


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